The Blue Diamond Band

Grumpy's!

Thanks to everyone who came to our Grumpy's residency! We had a great time, and hope we get to do another one sometime not too long from now.

Followers

About The Blue Diamond Band

Nato moved to Minneapolis in the spring of 2010 with a plan: put together a band that would fully realize his musical vision, and have a ton of fun with it while playing shows and making music and roamin' around in vans. With Mike Cranberry, Bill Rohla, Luke De Beaumarchais, and Sam Beer, this goal has been achieved in spades (special thanks to original bassist Kyle Sando and original lead guitarist Ross Fellrath as well). In addition to many, many shows in the Twin Cities, Nato and the BDB travel all over the region, playing Coles tunes both new and old (and of course some choice covers!). Look out, they're right behind you!

About Nato Coles

Hi there. My name is Nato Coles. I play rock'n'roll with the Blue Diamond Band, straight outta Twin Cities USA. We have an album out called Promises To Deliver, and before you even read this, you should probably grab yourself a copy and take a listen - it'll do a better job of explaining what I'm about than this bio will! Get it from Dead Broke Rekerds, or ADD Records. You'll love it, I guarantee! Anyway, I play guitar and sing. I rock a mean harmonica. I can play piano semi-ok. And I'm from Milwaukee, Wisconsin but I don't live there anymore... Before the Blue Diamond Band, I played with the Used Kids, and we put out an album in August 2009 called Yeah No, which you can get from Salinas Records. The Used Kids were a punk rock and roll band from Brooklyn, NY. On the records and live, I play guitar and sing. The other members were Danny Z (bass), Kate Eldridge (guitar) and either C.J. Frederick, Amos Pitsch, or Mikey Benmont Ergs (drums). Mikey plays on all the records, though. The last Used Kids show was at Gainesville Fest 2009, on Halloween Night. Myself and Danny were in a band called the Modern Machines, back when we lived in Milwaukee (more on them in a bit). When I, and then later Danny, moved to Brooklyn, we had a couple more shows left to play as the Mo-Macs, and so Mikey played drums, and around that time, Kate joined as well on guitar. This became the Used Kids. We still played some old Modern Machines tunes, in the beginning, but gradually switched to playing just about only new stuff. If you liked what the Modern Machines were up to near the end, you'll probably dig this band. Hey, the guys from Hunchback seem to... The Radio Faces were a band consisting of myself on guitar, Jimbo on guitar, Mikey on bass, and Sully on drums. Everyone sang. This band was started 'cause I knew all these guys from others bands I'd met while roamin' around (the Ergs!, Bent Outta Shape, Ringers, etc.), and you should listen out those other bands if you haven't already. Although Jimbo has passed away (RIP), so we're not a band anymore, the Radio Faces album is out now on Art Of The Underground Records. As Jimbo put it, it's "high energy r'n'r," so you know it rules!.. For the first half of the "aughts," I played guitar and sang in a punk rock band called the Modern Machines. The other original members were Danny (same guy as Used Kids), Jon Hanson, and Ben "BJ Oihawk" Woyak. There were a couple other guys named Ben as well, who came along later. We released several albums, several 7"s, and toured a bunch. You can still find Modern Machines records, online and in stores. We made our mark, and had a blast doing it, too. A good starting point for the Mo-Macs would be our 12" on Recess Records, called Taco Blessing. I still play that song "Taillights.".. I've played in other bands, too - but if you want to hear about those, you'll have to ask someone else...